STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. --- Thomas Maugeri of Dongan Hills enjoys “all different kinds of beer.” But he specifically savors craft brews --- those made in small batches, sometimes with unexpected ingredients and unusual flavors. And, Adobe Blues in New Brighton featured about 20 of such specimens on Sunday. The third annual event, dubbed Brewery Appreciation Day, tapped into vintage and rare beers.

Bar manager Ryan Barker hand-picked the selections. He loved what he had to offer.

"It's awesome," he said. "It's encouraging that so many people would be excited about beer."

The event, which attracted about 100 beer-lovers from noon to 4 p.m., sold out. Patrons paid $50 a head for a keepsake tasting glass, unlimited samples, a book for notes and a meal of fajitas and mini-tacos from a self-serve buffet station.

"These are big beers," summed up John Guhrin. He poured samples of the Louisiana brewer's "French Connection" flavored with French malt and hops.

By "big," Guhring referred to the bold brews in the room -- some hinting of chocolate and espresso or coffee and hot chili peppers. "Big" also nodded to the alcohol content on a few craft picks. For instance, with Blue Point Brewing Company's "Old Howling Bastard," the alcohol percentage by volume creeps into the double digits much like a fermented grape wine. Harviestoun Brewing Ltd. of Alva, Scotland -- a bold ale aged in whiskey barrels -- registered 10.5 percent ABV (alcohol by volume) whereas Double DBA Barleywine from California's Firestone Walker topped out at 12 percent ABV.

BEST BREWS

Maugeri ticked off his favorites in the first hour: He appreciated Staten Island homebrewer Doug Williams’ samples of Apfelwein “Jailhouse Cider” as well as Paul Camarca’s “Pour Richard’s Ale.” Camarca, representing Pour Standards, one of the borough's two organized homebrew clubs, offered tastes of his Colonial-era beer, an elegant quaff cooked up his New Brighton basement as a salute to Ben Franklin's favorite tavern sipper.

Another favorite among Maugeri and his friends: Southern Tier’s Pumpking from Lakewood, N.Y., with its pronounced vanilla and graham-cracker notes.

Shane Henderson, a rep with Union Beer Distributors of Brooklyn, poured Pumpking and chatted with the crowd on the beer's background. His company had stashed a keg from a 2012 batch anticipating this year's Brewery Appreciation Day.

Since then, Henderson explained, “[The beer] dropped out on the hops -- there’s a lot of vanilla."

Further highlighted selections at the Adobe event included New Hampshire’s Smuttynose Short Batch #21.

James Jennings, a business development representative for Union, waxed eloquent over Weyerbacher’s Aries. He pointed out that only 16 kegs of the pumpkin imperial were available this season in New York.

Ballast Point of San Diego impressed a handful of guests with its super-hopped Even Keel, an American Pale Ale.

“The brewery started as a homebrew shop,” explained Billy Denniston, who poured the selection. He said that the California company encourages its staff -- mainly a crew of homebrewers -- to brainstorm beers. He referred to Even Keel as a “San Diego session ale.”

“You can drink a lot of it,” Denniston said. And, the low alcohol level affords that kind of consumption.

Stories behind the beers and brewing processes came to a fever pitch in Adobe’s dining room by early afternoon. Outside the tavern, as a mist took hold and fog horns belted in the backdrop, Maugeri took a chow break and sat on a boulder. His outlook on the beers was restrained at the moment.

“But I’m only halfway through the beers,” he said as he nibbled a fajita.